Look at Israel's nukes too says Goff

By SIMON COLLINS

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff says the credibility of the world's hardline position in Iraq is undermined by continued development of nuclear weapons in Israel.

He also questioned the intelligence of the United States Defence Department, saying there was more intelligence on one floor of the State Department in Washington than in the entire office of the Secretary of Defence.

He told a dinner organised by the New Zealand Asia Institute at Auckland University last night that New Zealand would support military action in Iraq only "as a very last resort".

He was asked what role New Zealand could play to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons not just in the "Axis of Evil" countries of Iraq and North Korea, but also in South Africa and Israel.

He replied that South Africa was no longer a problem since it had stopped its nuclear weapons programme when apartheid ended in the early 1990s.

But he said: "Israel most certainly is a problem for all of us. As long as America is saying we want to deal to Iraq because it has weapons of mass destruction and it's not observing United Nations resolutions, a lot of eyes around the world say doesn't that apply also to Israel, why are you only looking to Iraq?

"New Zealand's position on both is not to adopt a me-too position to any other country."

He said the United Nations would be ineffective if its resolutions were not backed up by the threat of force.

"But in Iraq's case I see huge problems if a military strike is launched," he said.

"It will not be another fight in the desert. It will be like the Battle of Stalingrad, it will be fought block by block, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, with enormous casualties both for the invading forces and for civilian populations."

Herald feature: Iraq